Bell left a lasting legacy

Mourners remember beloved coach

Apr. 2, 2013

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Kim Bell receives a hug after the funeral of her husband, former Glendale High school baseball coach Howard Bell. / Valerie Mosley / News-Leader

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You’d be hard-pressed to find two different speaking styles and personalities than those of Mark Stratton and Keith Guttin.

But the pair are linked not only as coaches of the two biggest college baseball programs in the city. On Monday, both eulogized their friend, former Glendale High School baseball coach Howard Bell, at Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Springfield.

Both became emotional when talking about their friend in front of nearly 2,000 mourners at Bell’s funeral.

Bell died Friday after battling Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis for more than a year. He was 48.

Guttin, the longtime Missouri State baseball coach, recalled the mischievous side of his former player, including the time he suspended Bell a game for cutting class, and made him paint the bleachers on game day instead.

“He could run all day, and he did it a lot for me,” Guttin said. “He had an artistic side, too, so we put him to work on that fence to show it off.”

The no-nonsense Guttin kept his speech brief, but told of receiving a cell phone call from God on Friday, asking him about the prospects of Bell, the new No. 2 hitter on his “team.”

“He said, ‘I’ve got this rookie Musial hitting No. 3, and I need someone to hit in front of him,’ ” Guttin said in telling the story.

God relayed to Guttin in a later call that Bell had played well, going 2-for-3 with a double and making all the plays on defense.

“Well, you should see the way he can paint the bleachers,” Guttin told God.

“Howard made his presence felt up there,” Guttin then said. “Just like he did down here.”

Drury’s baseball coach, Stratton, took his turn. He relayed stories of when Bell was his assistant at Glendale.

He remembered first meeting his friend when Bell was coaching a summer baseball game in a body cast after a serious car accident shortly after his Southwest Missouri State playing career ended.

Stratton said he later saw Bell, body cast and all, in a gas station parking lot, yelling at the driver of another car.

“I knew right then and there,” Stratton said, getting choked up and fighting emotions, “that we were going to be tight.”

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Stratton, who is sitting out from coaching this spring to recover from a recent stroke, told humorous stories from road trips.

But he also told heartfelt ones.

Sharing a hotel room on one trip to Oklahoma, the pair were having a late-night chat. Stratton asked Bell about the accident and the trauma his body went through afterward.

“He said that he made a pact with God,” Stratton said. “That if God would allow him to get out of that bed and walk — to renew his life — that he would endeavor to make a difference with kids. He would be better, not bitter.

“God did his part, and my friend Howard Bell did just that. He made a difference in literally hundreds of lives. It’s such a legacy.”

Bell, who is survived by his wife, Kim, and adult daughters Keshia and Kameron, also was memorialized by his family.

Kim Bell closed the ceremony with a poem given to her about Howard. The poem was written by a student, who told her she would’ve dropped out of school if it wasn’t for Bell’s guidance.

Also, reading a statement prepared by his girlfriend, Kameron, Austin King relayed, “You’re the best, Dad. And there won’t be a day I won’t think about you, talk to you, or talk about you.”

Joe Pickens relayed the words of his wife, Keshia. She wrote that, at times, she was jealous of the time he spent with Glendale players over the years.

She came to realize that sharing her father with others was only right, as he was a man others needed to know.

“You wouldn’t know whether he had won or lost a game, unless we were there,” Pickens read. “He did a great job of keeping his lives separate and leaving it on the field.”